From the smoke, a large monkey appeared. The creature had regal armor and accessories riddling his form. The summon had jet black fur with golden eyes. From the looks of it, he had been summoned right in the middle of a snack.

"You'd better have a damn good reason for summoning me! Here I am eating a snack and you're in the midst of battle!" Sakura scoffed at the summon.

"Shut your trap monkey brat! Do I need to tell Enma of your insolence?!" The proclaimed 'monkey brat' took exception to this insult.

"I am Romulus, Monkey Prince! As such, you will respect me!" Romulus looked ahead at Zabuza and his army, suppressing a shudder.

"But in this case, I'll pardon my summoning. " Romulus said with a hint of anxiety laced in his voice. Sakura gripped her Yama Kattā, ready to end the battle. It had been drawn out for far too long already, and Zabuza was annoyingly persistent.

"They're made of chakra, so they have to be overcome with even more chakra. However, his sword is controlling them remotely from inside his body. I just don't know where exactly the blade is located. Regardless, we'll have to get close enough for the kill." Sakura informed Romulus, whom nodded in understanding.

Zabuza chuckled dryly. "To think you'd summon a mere monkey to battle MY ARMY is ridiculous! He'll be dead in seconds!" Under Zabuza's orders, his army changed with reckless abandon, determined to crush their opposition.

Romulus devoured his apple in one last gulp and summoned his giant naginata in a plume of smoke. The Monkey Prince increased in size, muscles expanding and tightening quickly, looking every bit the battle hardened warrior. The resemblande he bore to Enma was absolutely uncanny.

Sakura hopped on his back, preparing herself for the skirmish that was sure to be troublesome.

The Monkey Prince bolted forth slashing enemies left and right with chakra infused blows. Each time he defeated one, two more of the dastardly Yokai would replace them. A particularly large lion bolted up to Sakura and Romulus, biting out fiercely at them. Scoffing at the beast's ignorance, Romulus charged chakra to his feet and kicked the creation clear across the battlefield , defeating it with ease.

Sakura had not remained idle herself. For every creature that was created, a Wind Release powered strike of her blade would cut them down. The battle, if one could call it that was quickly swung in Sakura's favor.

'What?! No! My army can't be getting beaten like this!' Zabuza screamed with inarticulate fury. Desperately , he willed himself to create even more Yokai, such as flying vultures and giant dogs made entirely of chakra. Sakura cut down the new line of defense with her next jutsu.

"Fire Release: Dragon Flame Caterwaul!"

A score of flaming dragon heads were shot from Sakura's mouth and flayed at the army. The flames scorched through the defense and razed the army down to even lesser numbers. The flames burned with such magnitude that Zabuza bristled, despite being many feet away from the carnage himself.

Zabuza was unbending in his fight and promised that The Bloody Blossom wouldn't get him so easily. The man went through a few hand seals expertly and released even more mist, this time much thicker.

The mist would be a problem, but Sakura could not afford to worry about it at the moment. Running at top speed, she sliced through another five of the beasts, vanquishing them before they could cause more havoc. In a moment of respite that lasted but a second, Sakura was caught off guard by one of the Yokai that took the form of a raging rhinoceros.

The gigantic creature stomped on the ground, disgorging earth with its landing. Sakura flew back from the shockwaves, and plummeted into Romulus's arms.

"Damn it Sakura, be careful. You're getting reckless." The young monkey prince scolded. Sakura wiped the blood from her mouth and got back into formation.

"I know. He's a tricky one." Sakura admitted. She had never seen chakra molded in this way. It was absolutely ingenious. Her honed eyes scanned the battlefield and took stock of the situation. There had to be a source of that chakra. If she could sap the power at its source, then the jutsu would become undone. Theoretically.

Sakura closed her eyes, and used her less than perfect sensory abilities to scout for any chakra coming from his body. What she discovered caused her to gasp slightly. Sakura noticed hundreds of strands of chakra coming from Zabuza's stomach controlling the Yokai. A lightbulb went off. 'So that's how he controls them huh?'

'If I can override that chakra, then the jutsu will falter or at the very least be affected long enough for me to land the finishing blow. He could have vital information, I can't afford to kill him at this juncture.'

Gameplan now formed, Sakura leapt off of Romulus's back to punch several Yokai. Konoha's mightiest Kunoichi used her strong chakra to override the Yokai and kill them without much effort at all.

Romulus caught wind of his master's strategy and focused his massive chakra into his naginata, mowing down the many foes that came within his line of sight. However, his eyesight got clouded as the mist somehow became even thicker.

Despite the thick substance, Sakura's jade eyes were still visible and she gave him a knowing look.

So it was time for that. Romulus kicked one away before he and Sakura did hand signs in perfect cohesion.

"Combination Ninjutsu: Fuuton: Gale Twister!"

The powerful volley of tornadoes blew away the mist partially and cleared the cloudy battlefield, to say nothing of the utter annihilation the Yokai were subjected to. Sakura leapt off of Romulus's head and used Shunshin in combination with a furious leap to nearly teleport to Zabuza.

A huge white-blue orb appeared in her hand in a moment's notice. In the brief moment he had to observe the technique, Zabuza couldn't believe the level of shape control it took for such a jutsu. It was a perfect sphere, with such balanced rotation that watching it was almost hypnotic.

Taking that would do huge damage, but at close range and with Kato's speed, dodging was likely out of the question. Zabuza grit his teeth and prepared to take the blow.

"RAITON: PLANETARY RASENGAN!" she roared. Sakura had mastered this jutsu to an even greater extent than the Sannin who taught it to her. As the blast connected, Zabuza felt a corrosive sensation become heavy on his abdomen. He could literally feel his cells being destroyed on the inside of his body. Along with the corrosion of skin, he felt a jolt run through every fiber of his body. This justu must have also used some sort of lightning chakra. The pain that came with the blow was far behind Zabuza's physical limits.

As blood erupted from his mouth dirtying the fabric covering it and his stomach contracted, he knew that he had just been defeated and his fate was sealed. The blast struck with such force that it disconnected the flow of chakra to the Yokai before it even fully connected ,forcing them to dissipate.

Zabuza's thoughts were of regret at ever challenging the Bloody Blossom as he was sent soaring back.

With Team 7/Tazuna

Hinata gasped happily at what she had just seen. "My Byakugan can see that Sensei has won!"

Naruto celebrated happily, every bit of his eccentricity showing. "I knew Baka-sensei could do it!!"

Tazuna was less exuberant but he still let out a sigh he didn't know he was holding. The man was relieved that the young girl had prevailed.

Sasuke was still skeptical, despite Hinata's words.

"No, it's not over yet. I don't think so." One didn't achieve S-rank by being defeated that easily. Sakura was clearly the stronger of the two, but the young Uchiha was willing to bet the Mist Swordsman had something else up his sleeve. The foursome turned their attention back to the battlefield.

...BREAK

Sakura sighed tiredly. She may have put too much enthusiasm into that last attack. Although Sakura would never admit it to anyone but herself, this battle had satiated her longing for true combat that had gone ignored for so long.

Romulus looked over to his master with a smirk. "Looks like you've won, brat. Now you owe me!" Sakura rolled her eyes in faux annoyance.

"Fine, I'll ask Akira-San if she has a crush on you." Romulus smirked. Something about the tigers Sakura had a connection to were very attractive to him.

"If we're done here, I gotta go back home. Pops is probably worried sick." Sakura nodded and told him he could go. He reverse summoned hastily, not wanting to incur the Monkey King's wrath.

The pinkette groaned underneath her breath when she heard signs of trees rustling. The bastard just would not give up.

Zabuza stood up from the carnage and began to cackle sickly. "If you think this is my sword's only ability then you're WRONG!" Zabuza then stabbed himself with his broken sword. Sakura's eyes widened. What could be possibly be up to now?

The blood began to heal his broken sword.

'So that's his sword's ability. Extremely handy and fatal to most other kenjutsu users, but my Yama Kattā is the sharpest blade in existence. He still won't be able to bypass my defense.'

Zabuza cackled again.

"I hope you don't think that's all!" Zabuza made the sign for an unknown Jutsu. Sakura struck first. Allowing him another power-up was unnecessary. She still had children to protect and a mission to complete.

"Doton: Rock Prison!"

Zabuza's entire body was encased in rocks within a matter of moments.He was beyond angry now. Everything he did, she seemed to have a counter for. Every time he made 2 steps forward, she pushed him 4 back. Such raw skill. But he expected no less from the child of Kiri's most hated criminal and a Sannin.

Much to Zabuza's chagrin, he was utterly trapped with no way of escaping. The prison was even littered with explosive tags, just in case of any sudden movements he would have made. Sakura calmly stalked forward.

"I've been merciful to you this entire battle by holding back. I had planned on capturing you to extract any information you may have, but you're a bit too tricky for that. But now is the end of the line. You will die here!"

Zabuza would not cower, nor give her the satisfaction of flinching. That bitch would never know such gratification. Not from Kirigakure's Demon.

'Zabuza Momochi bows to no one! Not even you, damned Kato. '

Sakura made a move to slit his throat but at the very last second, three senbon lodged into his neck with startling precision and speed.

Sakura looked at the treetops to see a masked Shinobi. Despite their attempts to hide their gender with a mask and male clothing, Sakura confirmed the nin as a Kunoichi.

"Thank you Kato-San. I've been following him for months now. You made it easier for me. Will you kindly diffuse the paper bombs so I may collect his corpse?" Sakura's thoughts raced a mile a minute.

Was this Zabuza's accomplice? The blow was clearly not fatal, and only rendered a temporary deathlike state. Sakura's limited medical knowledge could even perceive that. Whoever it was, she was good.

'To strike faster than my attack at even further distance... I must be wary of this one. ' Sakura thought. However, despite her many thoughts her only answer was a stoic nod as she undid the seal matrix for the bombs.

The masked girl bowed in thanks, and tossed the carcass over her shoulder. With one last gesture of thanks in the form of a nod , the girl vanished.

Sakura narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Based on her garb, the girl must have been a hunter shinobi. Only the most skilled and hardened operatives were given such positions. Shows of thanks and emotion mwere never displayed in anything more than a grunt, even Konoha's ANBU had this lesson drilled into their curriculum endlessly.

Surely the Bloody Mist was even stricter, and yet the girl had expressly acted out of conduct. Definitely peculiar occurrence.

Sakura put those thoughts out of her brain for now, and began the short trek back to her team.

'I don't think this is my last time seeing Zabuza or that girl. But for now, I suppose I'm willing to let bygones be bygones.'